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sweet ridicule Feb 2015
Filing robotically
Smiling like a million
(fake)
Mona Lisas
In a portrait that
has violently painted them
violently painted us
decided our landscape
(colors
design)
painted violently
smile smile smile
Mona Lisa smile
It demands that we smile
But
This is not art
Smile smile smile
But are you happy
Smile smile smile
But are you happy
Fall fall fall
crack the smile
serene Mona Lisa
is cursed
like us.
how much of this is real?
Aaron Rosenberg Jan 2015
Lisas and Cheryls in halter tops walk the
Halls of Stoughton High full
Throttle, coiffed fleece fiercely feathered,
Tonys and Tims trawling in tow, toting
Texts.

Tims and Tonys slip
Slyly away, skip shop, talk
****, **** a doob behind
Bob’s Baitshop’s garbage dunes, tunes of
Geils and Seeger and Stones, applaud
Lisas and Cheryls, laud deserving
Donnas and Dianes (but dude, don’t
Let on!)

See,
A solitary Tony takes to one shapely
Cheryl’s sultry swagger, staggers, blathers
His rathers, turning her hair’s fair feathers
A-flair, she helping his hand higher up her hip, her
Cup, her concupiscent luscious lower lemon-lacquered lip, he agog, a *****
Dog with a bone.  And a libidinous loner
Lisa prefers a particular turgid Tim, digs
His Doors tee tucked
In to tight tan cords, affords
Herself a longer linger as his fingers
Dangle, thick thumbs hooked in belt. Looked at,
Felt, ***** his hip, flips a nod, draws a
Sneer, paws her rear, she his
Haunch, he steady and
Staunch, Steady and
Staunch
Not gonna
Launch
Steady
gawdamnsunuvabitch!
Thaws the sneer
Right there.
High gears it outta here.
Ryan P Kinney Dec 2015
The following is a very powerful dream I had the night of May 15th, 2009. I don’t often have dreams because my vivid imagination means I daydream a lot. I am seeking interpretations from anyone. Can you help me discover what it means…?

I am sitting in an auditorium. I am with my father, mother and brother, Shawn. The presenters are giving away tickets, one to a Cavs game, another to Cedar Point. I chose Cedar Point.
Instantly the environment changes. I am attending a huge social event party in a large multi-level office building. I am attending with 3 nameless, faceless friends. The party features 7 themed rooms. The first was an entry way similar to the one at my middle school. The second was a cross between the Cleveland Zoo (indoor parts) and an Indian bazaar market. There were tanks with lizards, salamanders, sharks, and sting rays. All had a price sticker on them. The third was a parlor with computers. I never discovered the other 4 rooms.
At this party, I knew Lisa was attending. I also knew she had a magical crystal that split her into 2 people. However, due to the 7 rooms she was accidentally split into 7. Each of the 7 Lisa’s was a different color (clothing), each representing a different personality characteristic.
The first Lisa I ran into was the black one in the entry way. When she saw me, she exclaimed, “Oh, ****!” and ran. It was shortly after that that I realized that she and the white one were evil. They were trying to **** me. I killed the white one. I do not remember how or why. Next I started running from the black one. I was sure that it had already killed my friends and I was next. She chased me into the parlor where I confronted her. When I turned around I realized this “Black Lisa” had turned into me. I killed it by slamming its head into a laptop screen.
I ran from the parlor into a stairwell. Here I encountered the red, purple, and yellow Lisa’s. These, I was sure were the good ones. I wanted to protect these 3 Lisa’s from the other 2 (colors unknown), that I was sure were trying to hurt us. I paid most attention to the red one. It was then, that my friends returned, coming down the hall with one slung over the shoulders of the other two. All three were alive and well.
Then I woke up…



Ryan’s Interpretation

The Dark Muse Dream

The following is a very powerful dream I had the night of May 15th, 2009. I don’t often have dreams because my vivid imagination means I daydream a lot. I am seeking interpretations from anyone. Can you help me discover what it means…?

I am sitting in an auditorium. The womb or an early family home.
I am with my father, mother and brother, Shawn. This scenario represents the beginning, my childhood and early family life before Lisa.  It also portrays quiet desperation.
The presenters are giving away tickets, one to a Cavs game, another to Cedar Point. Cedar Point is circumstantial.  I was going there later that month.
I chose Cedar Point.  The choice represents the choices I had to make in my life to go from child to man.
Instantly the environment changes. The 360 my life took after I met Lisa.
I am attending a huge social event party in a large multi-level office building.  Suddenly I had a social life and friends.  I was no longer an unknown and alone.  She brought me out of my shell.  The multi level building represents the complexity of my life with Lisa.
I am attending with 3 nameless, faceless friends. The party features 7 themed rooms. The first was an entry way similar to the one at my middle school. This was the familiar.
The second was a cross between the Cleveland Zoo (indoor parts) and an Indian bazaar market. This was the bizarre, strange, and new.  These first two rooms represented the outside world.
There were tanks with lizards, salamanders, sharks, and sting rays.   These creatures represent the untouchable, i.e. slimy.
All had a price sticker on them. They are for sale.  Nothing is sacred.
The third was a parlor with computers. The parlor represents my sanctuary, calming, and relaxing.  Yet the computer was one of many causes of my divorce.  To Lisa, me on the computer meant neglect.  The parlor also represented home with Lisa, hidden from the rest of the world.  This is where all the fighting and problems occurred.
I never discovered the other 4 rooms.  
At this party, I knew Lisa was attending. I also knew she had a magical crystal that split her into 2 people. Lisa was 2 completely different people.
However, due to the 7 rooms she was accidentally split into 7.  This represents the 7 deadly sins.
Each of the 7 Lisa’s was a different color (clothing), each representing a different personality characteristic. In my world, color represents emotion.
The first Lisa I ran into was the black one in the entry way. When she saw me, she exclaimed, “Oh, ****!” and ran. She is scared of me or ashamed.
It was shortly after that that I realized that she and the white one were evil.  White means my hidden anger towards Lisa while black is my guilt.
They were trying to **** me. Both my anger and guilt are killing me from the inside out.
I killed the white one. I do not remember how or why. Next I started running from the black one. I was sure that it had already killed my friends and I was next. The “Lisas” or more accurately, me destroyed all I had left (my friends).
She chased me into the parlor where I confronted her. When I turned around I realized this “Black Lisa” had turned into me. I was really running from and angry at myself.
I killed it by slamming its head into a laptop screen.  The act of slamming the head represents the violence I am guilty of and fear I am capable of.  Breaking the computer destroyed that which destroyed my happiness.
I ran from the parlor into a stairwell. The stairwell represents the path to my new life.
Here I encountered the red, purple, and yellow Lisa’s.   The good parts of Lisa I wanted to protect.
These, I was sure were the good ones. I wanted to protect these 3 Lisa’s from the other 2 (colors unknown), that I was sure were trying to hurt us.  I have an apprehension something else out there will hurt me again.
I paid most attention to the red one. Red means love.
It was then, that my friends returned, coming down the hall with one slung over the shoulders of the other two. Slung over the shoulders means a shoulder to lean on.
All three were alive and well. They were there, surprisingly, when I thought I was alone.
Then I woke up…
¡Qué hermosa es la ciudad, oh Contemplado,
                    que eriges a la vista!

Capital de los ocios, rodeada
                    de espumas fronterizas,

en las torres celestes atalayan
                    blancas nubes vigías.

Flotante sobre el agua, hecha y deshecha
                    por luces sucesivas,

los que la sombra alcázares derrumba
                    el alba resucita.

Su riqueza es la luz, la sin moneda,
                    la que nunca termina,

la que después de darse un día entero
                    amanece más rica.

Todo en ella son canjes -ola y nube,
                    horizonte y orilla-,

bellezas que se cambian, inocentes
                    de la mercadería.

Por tu hermosura, sin mancharla nunca
                    resbala la codicia,

la que mueve el contrato, nunca el aire
                    en las velas henchidas,

hacia la gran ciudad de los negocios,
                    la ciudad enemiga.
No hay nadie, allí, que mire; están los ojos
                    a sueldo, en oficinas.

Vacío abajo corren ascensores,
                    corren vacío arriba,

transportan a fantasmas impacientes:
                    la nada tiene prisa.

Si se aprieta un botón se aclara el mundo,
                    la duda se disipa.

Instantánea es la aurora; ya no pierde
                    en fiestas nacarinas,

en rosas, en albores, en celajes,
                    el tiempo que perdía.

Aquel aire infinito lo han contado;
                    números se respiran

El tiempo ya no es tiempo, el tiempo es oro,
                    florecen compañías

para vender a plazos los veranos,
                    las horas y los días.

Luchan las cantidades con los pájaros,
                    los nombres con las cifras:

trescientos, mil, seiscientos, veinticuatro,
                    Julieta, Laura, Elisa.

Lo exacto triunfa de lo incalculable,
                    las palabras vencidas

se van al campo santo y en las lápidas
esperan elegías.

¡Clarísimo el futuro, ya aritmético,
                    mañana sin neblinas!

Expulsan el azar y sus misterios
                    astrales estadísticas.

Lo que el sueño no dio lo dará el cálculo;
                    unos novios perfilan

presupuestos en tardes otoñales:
                    el coste de su dicha.

Sin alas, silenciosas por los aires,
                    van aves ligerísimas,

eléctricas bandadas agoreras,
                    cantoras de noticias,

que desdeñan las frondas verdecientes
y en las radios anidan.

A su paso se mueren -ya no vuelven-
                    oscuras golondrinas.

Dos amantes se matan por un hilo
                    -ruptura a dos mil millas-;

sin que pueda salvarle una morada
                    un amor agoniza,

y Iludiéndose el teléfono en el pecho
                    la enamorada expira.

Los maniquíes su lección ofrecen,
                    moral desde vitrinas:

ni sufrir ni gozar, ni bien ni mal,
                    perfección de la línea.

Para ser tan felices las doncellas
                    poco a poco se quitan

viejos estorbos, vagos corazones
                    que apenas si latían.

Hay en las calles bocas que conducen
                    a cuevas oscurísimas:

allí no sufre nadie; sombras bellas
                    gráciles se deslizan,

sin carne en que el dolor pueda dolerles,
                    de sonrisa a sonrisa.

Entre besos y escenas de colores
                    corriendo va la intriga.

Acaba en un jardín, al fondo rosas
                    de trapo sin espinas.

Se descubren las gentes asombradas
                    su sueño: es la película,

vivir en un edén de cartón piedra,
                    ser criaturas lisas.

Hermosura posible entre tinieblas
                    con las luces se esquiva.

La yerba de los cines está llena
                    de esperanzas marchitas.

Hay en los bares manos que se afanan
                    buscando la alegría,

y prenden por el talle a sus parejas,
                    o a copas cristalinas.

Mezclado azul con rojo, verde y blanco,
                    fáciles alquimistas

ofrecen breves dosis de retorno
                    a ilusiones perdidas.

Lo que la orquesta toca y ellos bailan,
                    son todo tentativas

de salir sin salir del embolismo
                    que no tiene salida.

Mueve un ventilador aspas furiosas
                    y deshoja una Biblia.

Por el aire revuelan gemebundas
                    voces apocalípticas,

y rozan a las frentes pecadoras
                    alas de profecías.

La mejor bailarina, Magdalena,
                    se pone de rodillas.

Corren las ambulancias, con heridos
                    de muerte sin heridas.

En Wall Street banqueros puritanos
                    las escrituras firman

para comprar al río los reflejos
                    del cielo que está arriba.
Un hombre hay que se escapa, por milagro,
                    de tantas agonías.

No hace nada, no es nada, es Charlie Chaplin,
                    es este que te mira;

somos muchos, yo solo, centenares
                    las almas fugitivas

de Henry Ford, de Taylor, de la técnica,
                    los que nada fabrican

y emplean en las nubes vagabundas
                    ojos que no se alquilan.

No escucharán anuncios de la radio;
                    atienden la doctrina

que tú has ido pensando en tus profundos,
                    la que sale a tu orilla,

ola tras ola, espuma tras espuma,
y se entra por los ojos toda luz,
                    y ya nunca se olvida.
preston May 2020

From the sodden, trundled forest floor the trees reached higher
than he ever imagined possible-- pine needles from the conif,
blending in  perfectly with those, broadleaf.. a strange, almost
absurd-feeling; symmetry- in a world, nothing more than
cluttered and confused--
           in the eyes of a small-one, now subject..

And now as a grown man,
I return to the disenchanted forest..
       in order to bring enchantment.
At the edge of the rustic, one-room
cabin, I pause..
choosing to peer in, rather than enter--
my world-hardened hands,  now pressed against
cracked window glass--

opaque, but still..

           I can see..

Inside the small room is as if a cosmo to itself-- there is a large
ring of dark water, surrounding what
seems to me to be a small island,
     yet still, I can feel her..  
           sense her glow..
And magnificent   within
her solitude and silence..
she is strong,
and firm-- her war-torn heart, gathered and secure..
all boundaries, seemingly intact--
        but there is a teeming..
        a never-ending movement
        of some form of life-

..in what I had once thought a ring of dark water,
but can now see as if some kind of a fear-hewn moat..
and the movement within, none other than that
           of those trying to reach her.

She is the prize,
pulled away from the threat of harm
       by her intricately created world.

And there is this black movement above her..    what is that?  
Moving in rhythmic synchronization..
             like a flock of starlings maybe..
The wings that give them flight, are bat-like and sharp..
and only varying sections at a time  of the flock's movement
alight on to her..
as other ones take flight and rejoin the ever-moving,
          ever-shifting flock's shape..

..and as each changing of the guard takes place,
the inhabitants of the moat change color--  

the light, now reflecting through the small window
and bringing a matching glow to my arm..

And though I remain unaffected by the color of light,
I see the whole nature of the moat, conform to each color's change..

And it is then that I realize
that the birds  are the pieces of her fragmented heart,
and the changing colors,  her perceived reality..
based on whatever portions of her heart are inside of her
at any given time.

The moat provides the distance,
yet one without its inhabitants even knowing
they are in it--

changing color in order to fit in to
              her ever-changing reality.


I will never enter into the moat..
and the color change is hers, not mine.
I am more distant to her now
than even those, of the moat..
and my refusal to change color
will always be a point of contention--
but for her, I am the only one who sees,
I am the only one who knows

about the island, the starlings.. the moat.

She loves me so much,
she hates me.

My prayer for her is that one day,
that whole flock of starlings will alight on to her..
      and never, ever leave.

Maybe on that day also, her moat filled with
Mona Lisas and Madhatters,  will finally, dry up..

and that her color perception  
will become  the colors that truly are,
            rather than those, of her ever-changing, shift


A disenchanted forest--  enchanted, once again.


as she quietly whispers into my ear..


"Until you've seen this trash can dream come true
you stand at the edge while people run you through,
..and I thank the lord, there's people out there like you"
https://youtu.be/OthHVnG9EKg
xox
Mateuš Conrad Aug 2016
one thing being concerned with
ideograms like with the Chinese defences
having preserved an offshoot from
Egyptian depiction,
but another thing to be in a sandpit
playing with orthographic changes -
by now you realise the Chinese encoding is
too complex to change, not enough
plasticine in it, nothing mandible,
you need skeletons, and even though
i'm not quick to boast, i think the matchsticks
of the affair deserves a pat on the back -
how a new aesthetic was born
from simply looking at the ß - to compete with
the Germans was necessary,
i ensured the Polish orthographic was in need
of revising, hence from sz (sh) came ß -
an ultra-diacritical suggestion of uniqueness,
but there had to be a twin to shorten the
rz into a ż of equal aesthetic concern,
hence the ʒ. in writing it's so wired, so dynamic,
no number of Mona Lisas can match up to it...
it's a ******* Frankenstein by the feel of it
with five blind-men and an elephant...
i know this will not become a standard of educating
people, i know this will take some time before
the revision takes assurance of survival,
but i will vouch on this revision via optometry
of how people read, perhaps reading more than
their current diet allows.
El viejo pozo de mi vieja casa
sobre cuyo brocal mi infancia tantas veces
se clavaba de codos, buscando el vaticinio
de la tortuga, o bien el iris de los peces,
es un compendio de ilusión
y de históricas pequeñeces.
Ni tortuga, ni pez; sólo el venero
que mantiene su estrofa concéntrica en el agua
y que dio fe del ósculo primero
que por 1850 unió las bocas
de mi abuelo y mi abuela... ¡Recurso lisonjero
con que los generosos hados
dejan caer un galardón fragante
encima de los desposados!
Besarse, en un remedo bíblico, junto al pozo,
y que la boca amada trascienda a fresco gozo
de manantial, y que el amor se profundice,
en la pareja que lo siente,
como el hondo venero providente...
En la pupila líquida del pozo
espejábanse, en años remotos, los claveles
de una maceta; más la arquitectura
ágil de las cabezas de dos o tres corceles,
prófugos del corral; más la rama encorvada
de un durazno; y en época de mayor lejanía
también se retrataban en el pozo
aquellas adorables señoras en que ardía
la devoción católica y la brasa de Eros;
suaves antepasadas, cuyo pecho lucía
descotado, y que iban, con tiesura y remilgo,
a entrecerrar los ojos a un palco a la zarzuela,
con peinados de torre y con vertiginosas
peinetas de carey. Del teatro a la Vela
Perpetua, ya muy lisas y muy arrebujadas
en la negrura de sus mantos.
Evoco, todo trémulo, a estas antepasadas
porque heredé de ellas el afán temerario
de mezclar tierra y cielo, afán que me ha metido
en tan graves aprietos en el confesionario.
En una mala noche de saqueo y de política
que los beligerantes tuvieron como norma
equivocar la fe con la rapiña, al grito
de «¡Religión y Fueros!» y «¡Viva la Reforma!»,
una de mis geniales tías,
que tenía sus ideas prácticas sobre aquellas
intempestivas griterías,
y que en aquella lucha no siguió otro partido
que el de cuidar los cortos ahorros de mi abuelo,
tomó cuatro talegas y con un decidido
brazo las arrojó en el pozo, perturbando
la expectación de la hora ingrata
con un estrépito de plata.
Hoy cuentan que mi tía se aparece a las once
y que, cumpliendo su destino
de tesorera fiel, arroja sus talegas
con un ahogado estrépito argentino.
Las paredes del pozo, con un tapiz de lama
y con un centelleo de gotas cristalinas,
eran como el camino de esperanza en que todos
hemos llorado un poco... Y aquellas peregrinas
veladas de mayo y junio
mostráronme del pozo el secreto de amor:
preguntaba el durazno: «¿Quién es Ella?»,
y el pozo, que todo lo copiaba, respondía
no copiando más que una sola estrella.
El pozo me quería senilmente; aquel pozo
abundaba en lecciones de fortaleza, de alta
discreción, y de plenitud...
Pero hoy, que su enseñanza de otros tiempos me falta,
comprendo que fui apenas un alumno ******
con aquel taciturno catedrático,
porque en mi diario empeño no he podido lograr
hacerme abismo y que la estrella amada,
al asomarse a mí, pierda pisada.
Jonathan Moya Nov 2020
I.
1.
The poem parses time into syllables
and the syllables reach out to hold you
in the embrace of your grandmother’s words,
the light touch of motherly praise,
the squirm of a daughter’s protestations,
the first gurgling phonemes of the womb
advancing to meaning, dissolving to memory.
2.
The grandfather clock travels in grandfather time,
its tick tick ticking replacing the shadows
cast by the sun on a circular stone
that mimicked the once holy dawn ringing out
on the sway of evergreens,
the rattle of doe hooves,
every sound collecting to the center
of the pulsating green forest.
3.
The lullabies chanted to the womb
hickory dickory dock, tick tock
its way up into the time of every song
you ever sung and remembered
until its sleepy dreams replace
every still moment of waking life.
4.
The paintings in the Louvre
are all Mona Lisas and Medusa’s—
the same **** faces
with different smiles
that become petrifying
when gazed head on
but freeing apace when
converted into frame rates
that match the time and space
of your foot movements,
heartbeats and thoughts.
5.
The pandemic has reduced
the world to FaceTime,
apart in space, time and touch:
the voice, the echoing of electrons,
the face, replaced by the screen image,
the same **** faces again without depth,
permitting no movement beyond
the camera’s border, no past or future,
just a present looped and memed ad infinitum
without a song to sing,
no dancing cheek to cheek,
until denied the reality of human time
neither of you can sustain a relationship
within the movement of this thing.  

II.
1.
Now your world exists
in the untouchable,
in shutdown,
in stopped time,
just a still life hung on the wall,
that you can only gaze at
but dare not touch
lest violence erupt.
2.
Everything is gone
in the flicker of an eye.
The black bird
with the yellow underwings
speeds by in a golden flash
until it vanishes into the forest.

III.
1.
And you are left
with the memory
of your grandmother’s embrace
singing only to you.
2.
It was holy, holy, holy,
a divine person,
a hymn,
a double beat
of syllables
seeding first into the earth
and then into you.
3.
You develop bifocular vision,
seeing not only
everything near and far
but all that is above and below
the soul’s watery movements.

IV.
1.
You remember the first time
you saw the goddess
rising half from  
the water and the sky,
dancing and singing
on the shore.
2.
Now, everything is painted
with the white clay
of her existence.
3.
Syllable by syllable her song
becomes your poetry,
a repeating chant
that entrances you
until your joy
passes beyond time,
to become the only
thing that matters.
4.
Her love allows you
to touch those things
that can never be touched
without the risk of infection.
5.
The poems written
enter through
the eye and ear
and touch the heart
of the world.

V.
1.
On your last walk
a green snake
undulates in S curves
on the trail in front.
2.
In the hiss
you hear no threat,
only love
that acquiesces
to allowing you
to touch its back,
until it straightens
itself out .
3.
In that moment
time un-wrinkles.

— The End —